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I am not even close to ready, we got a big snow and it buried my unaired thanksgiving outdoor decor so that is still up. I don't like to put up my stuff until it gets closer to christmas. At this rate that may be valentines day

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I am a three cat mama and can’t have a tree, either. I miss that but I’d miss the cats more. I’ll put a Christmas table cloth out and candles and some Christmas salt & pepper shakers. I have a mantle so there’s a chance I’ll do stockings.

I like fairy string lights that don’t need to be plugged in and plan to get some of those.
ANN

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Okay didn't even think about our new addition Chunk. Bella was great last year about the tree, don't know how chunk is going to do. I really hope he doesn't make a disaster out of it. I will be bummed and I will admit I did buy a fake tree about a month ago. My youngest is disgusted with me lol. He says it has to be real. So tired of needles and drooping branches. told him we would try it this year and see how it goes.

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I've done a LOT of baking and candy making ... I'm almost finished ... whew. It's all expensive, hard work but I enjoy it and it means a lot me to give containers of the goodies to special people and special places. The local police dept. is my favorite place to give holiday treats.

I'm making hats and scarfs to be given to the homeless in connection with a local project that distributes these items. I do this year-round but winter and the holidays are probably when they are most needed and appreciated.

Christmas tree? I haven't had a real one of any size in about 40 years. Most of the time the reason for skipping a tree was the cat but most years I rigged up a small tree (1 -2 feet high) and set it on a high shelf out of the cat's reach. For many years this was just a Norfolk Island pine tree that was one of my house plants. At Christmas I decorated it with small ornaments.

More recently I've had an artificial tree, about a foot high, that I just pull out of a box every year and plug in. The lights and ornaments are already attached to it. No shedding needles but no evergreen fragrance either.

I don't do any decorating till Christmas Eve but I leave it all up till January 6. I don't quite understand prolonging the season by starting it just after Thanksgiving.

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thanksgiving was so early this year that it was easy to start decorating early. i am cleaning as i decorate, so it takes me a bit longer, but i get it done.

i have a mantel that i decorate every year with candles and greenery and a bit of silver. i was at a friends house about 10 years ago and she had some huge pine trees in her yard. i picked up a bunch of these long pinecones and i have kept them ever since. they go in a crystal bowl on my glass table in the living room. i also have this vine tree that i bought about 6 years ago. it was getting too time consuming to buy and to decorate a real tree, so i thought that would be a nice alternative. i haven't figured out how to put stuff on it, though, because it is kind of flat, not like a tree with branches. it's vines wrapped around a metal cage and it's in the shape of a christmas tree. maybe i should just put lights on it and call it a day? i will get some poinsettias because i love all the different colors and they are so cheap at the farmer's market i go to every week.

if i bake cookies, it's the ones everybody loves. they are butter cookies, rolled into a ball, dipped in ground walnuts, flattened and a finger hole in the center filled with raspberry jam. they take a while to make, but i just set aside a couple hours and bake about 4 dozen or so. they are two-bite cookies. two bites and they're gone!

a christmas tablecloth goes on my dining room table with poinsettias in the center. and that's it! i'm going slow this year because i'm really in my winter funk and semi=depressed.

i'm having a colonoscopy on thursday, so the day before and the day of will be days of prep and rest. i'm getting a big box of stuff to donate to the salvation army, not clothes, but household items.

and that is christmas time. i love that you make cookies for so many people, jingle. no cats here to worry about the trees, but you know, i have caught my sneaky dog nora chewing on the hard vines of my tree!!! she's not a chewer, so i wonder where she got this taste for vine trees .

so, merry christmas to all who read and post here and i hope it's a peaceful and healthy new year!

thank you all for sharing and caring all these years,
jeannie

Here's to good women. May we know them. May we be them. May we raise them."The world is a better place when you're barefoot." Mark"Don't go there unless you know the way back." TC"...there will be an answer. Let it be." Paul McCartney

Jeannie (tic chick), facing a colonoscopy would depress me. I'm not at all surprised that you're feeling a bit low. Hope better days are ahead!

Congratulations on even thinking about baking cookies. My take on the holidays is that they're meant to be an enjoyable time, but if a person is all worn out from too much baking, wrapping, and decorating, they won't be so very enjoyable. So I back off from doing anything that looks like too much, and most of it looks like too much.

I was wondering about the vine tree you mentioned--would it be sort of like this?

that tree you posted a pic of, agate, looks like a topiary. i think it's very pretty and able to be decorated easier than my tree!

jeannie

ps to agate: colonoscopies don't bother me much. my mom and grandma both had colon cancer, so i'm on an every 5 year screening schedule. i've had 3 of them already....

Last edited by tic chick; 12-03-2018 at 01:23 PM.

Here's to good women. May we know them. May we be them. May we raise them."The world is a better place when you're barefoot." Mark"Don't go there unless you know the way back." TC"...there will be an answer. Let it be." Paul McCartney

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